Billionaire Richard Branson has sold 6% of Virgin Galactic for $300 million
The founder and largest shareholder of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) – billionaire Richard Branson – got rid of another stake in the company. He reduced his stake in Virgin Galactic to 11.9%.
Richard Branson sold a stake in the aerospace company Virgin Galactic for $ 300 million, Bloomberg reported. As a result, Branson got rid of 15.6 million shares of the company, about 6% of the total volume of issued securities.
The average sale price was $19.25. Against the background of this news, Virgin Galactic’s quotes fell by 3.6% to $18.32 following the results of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on November 16.
The agency reported that Branson sold part of the assets to support his business empire, including the tourism and entertainment business, which suffered greatly during the coronavirus pandemic, citing a representative of the Virgin Group.
He said that part of the funds received would also go to developing new and existing enterprises. The agency estimated that the total volume of sales of Virgin Galactic shares by the company’s founder Richard Branson after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic exceeded $ 1 billion.
Branson sold $300 million worth of shares in the first half of 2020, a $150 million package of securities in April 2021, and another $300 million in August 2021. Despite the reduction of the stake in the company, Richard Branson remains the largest shareholder of Virgin Galactic.
According to the agency’s calculations, the value of its 11.9% stake was about $600 million, based on the securities price of $19 at the close of trading on Monday, November 15. Virgin Galactic shares have fallen by 21% this year, including delays in the launch of commercial flights.
Nevertheless, they have grown by more than 81% since the company began trading on the stock exchange after the merger in 2019 with the specialized company (SPAC) Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings. Although, Virgin Galactic in 2004, is part of the Virgin Group of companies, co-founded by British billionaire Richard Branson.
The company plans to make money on suborbital tourist flights. Last month, Virgin Galactic announced the postponement of the start of commercial flights to the fourth quarter of 2022 due to the repair and improvement of the spacecraft and carrier aircraft VMS Eve. Instead, from 2023, the company plans to make three flights a month with space tourists on board.
